Penguino

gulp maggots or waxies work well

I can say for a fact that you wont be disappointed with Okuma rods.... I've used the EVX and C3-40X and they've only served to meet my expectations.

Is it possible you could get a better picture or even catch one of the fish? All i see is a dark fish that has a relatively fusiform shape, leading me to believe that it is some type of sunfish.

Looks like a type of shiner to me.... probably Golden except I don't see the red fins that typically characterize the fish.

Those hooks look to be the perfect size for crappie... maybe your getting smaller sunfish nip at your lure? Or maybe your setting the hook too hard (crappie have extremely soft mouths)? There are many possible reasons why you cant hook up

Whip a Rooster Tail right across their face and you almost guaranteed will get a bite.

How many pieces? I typically like my UL's to be 3-4 pieces for easy traveling

Nice fish and sounds like a great vacation!

The bait bubbling you see may not be fish at all lol. I once thought this until i saw a 10 pound snapping turtle leaving a trail of bubbles behind in a small pond. Additionally, carp can also cause the water to bubble as they root up the bottom of the water.

All i gotta say is that it sure as hell will be fun to watch

LOLOLOL. If you fish in Central NJ, then you should be catching most of your fish in early summer. Even on the big lakes, such as Farrington or Carnegie, which get overfished way too much, in the summer, I can always catch at least 2-3 bass from the shore. If worst comes to worse, go to google maps and find a pond near you, and you should guaranteed be able to catch as much bass as you want. Lastly, in early summer, you should be wanting to use moving lures such as flukes, chatterbaits, and frogs. For me, soft plastics like senkos and ribbontails are more of a bait for late summer, where the fish become sluggish and suspend.

FA dieoff as it gets colder.... those ponds may be in the beginning of a fishkill

Do Crappie and Perch Hit 'em?

worms, worms and more worms. In all seriousness though, bluegill will hit anything. I've caught them on stinkbaits, raisins, bare hooks etc. Perch however, are much more finicky, and in terms of live bait, the only things I've had them hit are nightcrawlers and small shiners.

Now if there was only an academy anywhere near me... somebody needs to tell Academy to expand to the northeast

Hybrid Striped Bass would be my call. HSB would be your best bet as they won't reproduce in your pond and they can take out pretty much all the smaller fish like juvenile sunnies and small bass. The main problems with catfish is that once flatties and blue cats get big, they will eat anything and everything in your pond, including your trophy largemouth and crappie/panfish. Additionally, without proper management, I've heard stories of blue cats reproducing in large ponds which is the last thing you want.

Would bet on longnose gar. Doubt chain pickerel, as I've never known them to school in numbers like those. From what I know, most of the fish species in Esox are lone wolves and prefer their own space.

I could use the argument you use in the beginning of your paragraph on almost any type of rough fish. Other than carp and tilapia, all other rough fish such as gar, pickerel, green sunfish, catfish, bullheads will readily eat bass fingerlings without a second glance. They have done studies on the Potomac where the snakehead population was a big deal a few years ago, and found the bass population is still just as catchable and fishable as before. In fact, some people I know report even bigger fish being caught, as a possible reason is snakehead helping up clean the gene pool by eating smaller bass. Eventually, at the end of the day, I view snakehead exactly as I see pickerel. Not what I'm fishing for, but still extremely fun and enjoyable to hook up upon.

Just last week, I went to the world class Bow River to do some fishing, and all I caught were mainly trout. The vast majority of the fish were 10-12 rainbows and brook trout fingerlings. However, in a small section of the river near lake louise I caught two unique fish that I really couldn't identify. Both were caught in about 4-5 feet depth in pools in an shallow stretch of the river. Could anybody help identify the two for me? Additionally, how do they survive in small pools in a really shallow stretch of the water where the water is only 40 degrees farenheit and near freezing?

find a major lake in the area and cast out a slip bobber rig with a tube jig or a live minnow. Don't use nightcrawlers as the sunfish will tear it up extremely quickly. Lastly, target the edge of weedbeds and you should be likely to hook up to a school

Green Sunfish are fun as hell to catch even though they can be a nuisance in the majority of ponds I fish in. Haven't caught a Snakehead or Bowfin yet and would suspect those fish will jump to the top of my list.

Sounds like your looking at a black crappie. If so, make sure you hooks aren't too big nor too small, and try a live minnow (shiner).

slug-go's or senko's because of their versatility. You can fish them in almost any way you like (drop shot, t rig, wacky rig, Carolina etc.)

In order, 1. Slug-Go's 2. Zoom Super Flukes 3. Yum Houndini Shad

Either or. Poppers are a topwater lure, so all that really matters is length, action, and line used. Sensitivity and the actual materials used for this type of rod really wont matter.